622 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [ Mar ch i, 1888. 
VEGETATION AND MOONLIGHT. 
Tho letter of your Trinidad correspondent, given 
in jS'utare, vol. xxxvi, p. 586, referring to a com- 
ujiitte appointed to determine moon influence, has 
a practical interest for me. Among the wood cutters 
in Cape Colony, both east and west, there is a 
fixed bt lief j which no arguments can turn, that to 
cut timber nt, or shortly after, full moon, is to cut 
it when the tup is up ; and when, consequently, it 
is out of season. The same belief prevails in various 
parts of Southern India, notably in Travancore. I have 
always combated the belief, pending time and oppor- 
tunity to test it, indulging in the provisional hypothesis 
that the bush-workers' belief may be due to the fact 
that they can only work by night at or near full 
moon ; and that at night trees should contain more 
sap than by day, when watery exhalation is active. 
It seems possible that in the habitually cloud- 
less nights of certain countries the moon may exert 
influences not noticeable elsewhere. It is we 11 
known in Oape Colony that fisb, pork, and other 
provisions go bad if left exposed to moonlight ; 
though possibly this may be due to the light acting 
as a guide to insects. D. E. Hutchins, 
Conservator of Forests. 
Oape Colony, December 8, 1687. 
PLANTING AND CULTIVATION OF ABBOW- 
EOOT AT PIMPAMA, QUEENSLAND. 
The ground having been prepared by ploughing, har- 
rowing, &c, and if more than the second successive crop 
of arrowroot, well manured, is marked by ploughing 
parallel and transverse furrows about four inches deep, 
the former 6 ft. apart and latter 3 ft. to 5 ft. according 
to fertility, &c, of soil. 
The plants which consist of the choicest bulbs (of 
the later growth) of the previous season's crop — gener- 
ally picked out and placed in separate heaps, and 
covered with rubbish, during the preparation of the 
bulbs for the mill — are now carted to the field and 
tipped in heaps at convenient distances apart; men 
take them in large canvas aprons and place nicely one 
large bulb at each intersection ; if the grouud be 
moist and in good order the covering is effected by 
throwing up a light furrow on each side of the parallel 
marking ; it the ground be dry and lumpy, the cover- 
ing should be done with a hoe, putting only fine soil 
on and firming slightly with the foot to ensure 
" striking." . 
The subsequent cultivation resembles that of Maize, 
differing mainly in that arrowroot needs tilling from 
soon after "planting;" the best months for which, 
here, are August and September until March. 
In planting newly ' burned ' scmb land, holes are 
mado with a hoe, plants placed in, aud the loose soil 
replaced and firmed slightly with the foot. Newly 
" buiued " scrub land, or any good ground never having 
had the crop on before, gives the best yield of 
arrowroot. — Chemist and iJvugyist. 
* 
EEPOBT ON THE CAWNPOBE EXPEBI- 
MENTAL STATION FOB THE BABI SEASON 
OF 1886-87. 
Colonel Titcher, in forwarding this report, states : — 
There is little of novelty to call for comment. Ex- 
periments with manures, organic and inorganic, with 
green soiling, deep ploughing, and irrigation were con- 
tinued with but littlo variation on the old lines, the 
results of which are elaborately tabulated. Varying 
with the season, as the latter may be wet or dry, 
some manures show better in one season than others. 
It would only be after a long and continuous series, 
much longer than arc yet available, that authoritative 
duductions could be drawn as to the precise gain or 
less resulting from any particular treatment. Por the 
past season the general outturn was very disappoint- 
ing at least one-third less than we had reason to 
expect The adverse causes were heavy hail, at seed 
time, and, .most severe frost, at the time of flower- 
ing. On the other hand the crops were free to an 
unusual extent from furigoid growths. Experiments 
were made with English wheat seed eent out through 
the India office. The condition of the seed on arri- 
val was bad, but still there was enough with which 
to show what we have shown before, viz., that we 
have better varieties, or rather, perhaps, local varie- 
ties that suit us well, and have even a European re- 
putation. Local varieties were as usual subjected to 
comparative trial, and one now introduced for the first 
time on the station and known as Baxar appears 
likely to compete successfully with the best of our 
own Provincial varieties. Of all experimental work 
on the station, there is none of greater value than 
that touching the selection of seed and trial of varie- 
ties. Ensilage continues to be managed with success. 
One grass silo kept for the purpose was opened after 
three years; rain had evidently penetrated and the 
coutents were useless, but it was hardly to be expected 
that with grass the result would be otherwise, as it 
is the material most difficult of all to manage. 
Usar grass from one of the dsai reserves gave good 
silage after being stored for the ordinary time. The 
sale of implements appears on the whole to have been 
less brisk than formerly, exceptions being small 
English grain-crushers and chaff-cutters, for which 
there is increasing demand. 
— * 
AMERICAN VINES IN FBANCE. 
The excitement about the replanting of the ruined 
French vineyards has recently entered on an acute 
stage. Five years ago tho dealers in American vine 
plants, seeds, and cuttings, had it all their own 
way ; and the more enterprising of the vineyard 
proprietors were investins large sums of money in 
varieties of Vitis Estivalis and l / . Riparia. One had 
no business in an agricultural society's meeting 
unless he could talk glibly of the Black Jacquez of 
Mississippi and Missouri, and knew all its seventeen 
other names, besides its supposed ancestor the Her- 
bemont. Then there was Norton's Virginia from the 
Potomac, the Cynthiaua or Bed Biver, the Cunning- 
ham, the Clinton, the Solonis, the York Madeira, 
and the Taylor and its by birds. But since then 
millions of Clintons and Taylors have beeu uprooted 
for their hollow failure in resistance to the phyl- 
loxera; while other supposed varieties of the same 
family, V. Riparia,, are following in their wake, for 
they will not take grafts from the French vines ; 
and 15,000 of these stocks have all perished together 
in one vineyard alone near Montpellier. The trust 
is that practical men are now waking up to the 
fact — long well known to botanists — that the hybirdiz- 
ations of vines in their wild American habitats have 
been infinite, and that thus it is not easy to get a 
phylloxera-proof Estivalis or Riparia, uncrossed by 
the worthless V. Labrusca. But the loss . of years 
and capital is hard to bear; and hence there is just 
now a considerable amount of stir, and also of that 
mode <sf motion which wo know as heat. I myself 
have cautiously experimented with American vines 
in south-western Prance for some years, but can as 
yet give very few positive recommendations. More 
time is required. So far, the Ohasselas de Fou- 
tainebleau grafted on American Solonis stocks gives 
a good result; but the growth of the wood is 
slow. The Herbemonts on their own roots are un- 
equal ; some plants growing ahead fast enough, while 
others lag behind most discouragingly. One year 
their large bunches of small black grapes are deli- 
cious, the next nothing but verjuice is produced. 
The Elvira and the Noah, said to be American 
seedlings from the Taylor, produce a small golden- 
green luscious muscat grape, which has the fatal 
habit of dropping from its small bunches as it 
ripens. Useless for wine in France, it gives a fair 
brandy. The Cunningham, a southern Estivalis, seems 
to prefer an early grave. 
Becent French vine congresses seem to have 
hammered out the opinion that it is no longer of any 
use to sow vine-seeds imported from America. The 
Yankees are on the opposite tack, of course, and al- 
lege that all their hybridizations of American by 
French vines are failures, The Yitioultural Society 
